GENTLING A WILD HORSE REQUIRES PATIENCE

Tiffiney Kies rode along a lane on Willow, a 5-year-old black mare who was the first mustang Kies adopted and rode.

Teaching the children in her special education class at South Elementary School in Jackson is similar to handling mustangs in two important ways, Tiffiney Kies says.

"It takes time and patience."

The 25-year-old Kies has adopted three wild horses in the past year. Two mares, Willow and Miss Chips, came from the Bureau of Land Management sale last summer at Flickerwood Arena. She adopted her dappled gray gelding, Moab, from the Bureau of Land Management in an Internet auction just last March.

Kies has kept horses at the family farm southeast of Jackson for most of her life. She also has six domestic horses. People warned her against adopting mustangs because they have a reputation for being difficult to train.

That's a misconception, she says.

"It goes back to taking time and patience. You've got to start at ground zero."

By that she means doing things like letting the horse see and feel the saddle and blanket before putting them on.

To a wild horse, people are potential predators. They're also afraid of leads at first because of the resemblance to snakes. They resist anyone getting on their backs at first because that's how a mountain lion attacks.

Some people who adopt wild horses try to "cowboy" them, Kies says. They tie their legs and try to break them. "The horse works out of fear."

Kies takes the approach pioneered by Monty Roberts, whose training techniques inspired the novel and movie "The Horse Whisperer."

She works the horses in a round pen so they never feel cornered and does not use force to get them to obey. She pays attention to their body movements. "I'm trying to communicate with them as a horse would," Kies says.

None of the horses would let her touch them when they first arrived. "All you can do the first few weeks is sit down here and talk to them," Kies says.

She had to separate Willow and the younger but dominant Miss Chips at first because they wanted to bond to each other. Once the horses allowed her to pet them they bonded to her.

The training hasn't gone perfectly. Kies says she pushed 5-year-old Willow too fast and was bucked off last August. The fall broke Kies' back.

"It was her way of telling me she was not quite ready yet," she said.

The doctor forbid her to ride again until last March. Of course, Kies didn't wait that long.

Moab came from Wyoming in March. She was able to sit on him for the first time just last week.

"It's an awesome feeling to know you're the first person to have gained that trust," she says.

In the wild, the mares make the daily life decisions and the males are the protectors. Eight-year-old Moab has a broken nose, a nicked nostril and part of an ear is missing, all probably from stud fights. She thinks the heroic-looking horse was the dominant one in his herd. "The stories he could tell," she says, smiling.

Moab can't be let outside the gates because no one would ever catch him.

Each horse has a brand that tells when it was born and where it was captured. Many wild horses end up in rodeos, where they are used for roping and barrel racing. The have great endurance. Their hooves are thicker and stronger than those of domestic horses, so much so that some people don't shoe them.

Anyone thinking of adopting a wild horse should have some basic horse knowledge, Kies says. A mustang wouldn't make a good first horse for a child.

Kies is pre-approved to adopt three more horses at the Flickerwood Arena in July. Her plans are to train them, ride them and maybe someday show them. "They've pretty much got a home here for life," she says.

She has had Willow and Miss Chips for a year. She takes them on trail rides but says they aren't yet as calm as her domestic horses.

"People don't realize how much time and patience it takes," Kies said.